


A Gift For Parker

by DustyDiamond



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:35:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8917645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyDiamond/pseuds/DustyDiamond
Summary: Christmas is coming and Parker is excited.  Can Eliot and Alec find her the perfect gifts?





	1. Chapter 1

**Thanksgiving Day**

 

Eliot put away the left overs and busied himself cleaning up the dishes from their Thanksgiving meal. Hardison had offered to help but Eliot waved him off. He knew the last place the hacker really wanted to be just then was in a kitchen with a stack of dirty dishes. In fact, when he looked over his shoulder, Eliot saw Hardison sitting in front of the huge screens usually used for planning a con playing World Of Warcraft. "Do you realize in a few months the newest expansion will be out?"

"Do you realize I don't care?" Eliot countered.

"Deck the halls with balls of holly..." Parker stopped singing and said, "What does a ball of holly look like?" She was coming down from upstairs carrying a large box marked Christmas, because Xmas was just wrong she had declared.

"It's not balls it's boughs, Parker. They mean leafy branches of holly,:" Eliot said. 

"Are you gonna start decorating tonight momma?" Alec asked.

"Eliot said I couldn't decorate before Thanksgiving and it's Thanksgiving."

"It can wait until tomorrow, Parker." Eliot returned to the sink full of dishes. For some reason he preferred washing them by hand instead of using the dishwasher.

Parker set the box of decorations down on the table and opened it. She took out a strand of garland and waltzed her way into the kitchen. "Don't be a grump. Christmas is almost here and it is time to dress up the place and make it look festive." She draped the garland over Eliot's shoulders. "See? Even with that scowl on your face you look better decorated."

"There's somethin' wrong with you." The words sounded harsh but the grin he couldn't hold back softened them enough that the blonde thief kissed him and grabbed a dishtowel.

"I'll dry. Then you can help me with the decorations."

"Parker I'm not gonna..." Her lips formed a pout, her eyes began to fill with unshed tears. Eliot caved. "Do any decorating until after we have our pumpkin pie."

Parker grinned. "Deal! I can get some of my diamonds to make the tree sparkle more."

"Let's keep those safe. We have enough sparkly things for you to put on the tree," Eliot suggested.

As soon as the dishes had been finished Parker eyed the pie but conceded when Eliot pointed to Hardison. "Let him play a little longer," he whispered. 

A half hour passed before Parker went and sat next to Alec. "Eliot says it is time for pie." She spoke quietly thinking the hitter couldn't hear. 

For his part Eliot shook his head and got off the sofa he had been lounging on. He made his way into the kitchen area and pulled a carton of heavy cream from the refrigerator. In no time at all he had whipped it up into a nice thick cream that would top off their dessert. In Parker's case the amount she used would bury her piece. Before the bowl was even set on the table her finger was diving and taking a swipe of the sweetened cream. "Mmmm good," she declared.

"Everything Eliot makes is good baby girl," Alec said as he accepted the offered slice of pie from Eliot.

 

**The following morning**

 

Eliot walked out of his bedroom and stopped dead in his tracks. After they had finished their pie Parker had set the three of them to getting the Christmas decorations done until Eliot said, "Alright! Enough!" and flat out refused to have any more put up. Overnight Parker had struck. While he slept she had added more, there were tinsel and garlands draped on anything that would hold them. "Parker!" he yelled.

She lowered herself from the rafters on a red and green zipline. "Isn't it pretty?"

"I told you absolutely _no_ decorations in the kitchen area." He strode over and began pulling the garland from the vent hood over the stove. 

Running over, Parker inserted herself between Eliot and the stove, spreading her arms out wide as if that would prevent him from undoing all her work. "Why?"

"Fire hazard Parker. I can't have all this stuff around open flames. It has to go." He reached around her and pulled the garland down.

"But I worked hard," she said, her lower lip trembling.

Eliot stopped and put his hands on her shoulders. He softened his voice as he spoke, careful to keep his normal growl out of it. "I know you did darlin'. I can see how hard you worked. Only we can't have it in here. C'mon, we'll take it down in the kitchen but leave all the rest up. Okay?"

Clearly Parker wasn't happy but she nodded and helped Eliot clear the decorations she had put up overnight. 

By the time Hardison woke and came downstairs the kitchen was stripped clean of most Christmas decor. Eliot let Parker keep the Santa cookie jar on the counter. He was whipping up a batch of chocolate chip pancakes that Parker asked for. Hardison was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he walked over to see what Eliot was cooking. "Must have been Parker's day to pick breakfast."

"Yeah, well I kinda owed her," Eliot said as he looked over to where she was listening to Christmas music while wrapping a box she had brought into the room. He lowered his voice. "She had all that stuff in the kitchen and I made her take it down."

"Why would you do that? You know how much she loves Christmas."

"Fire hazard, Hardison. Listen, have you gotten her anything yet?"

"Naw man I am still thinking on it. How about you?"

"I have one idea but I wanted to get her more than that."

"Don't you love how her eyes light up?"

"Yeah. Don't tell her," Eliot turned back to the stove and the food he had on it. 

 

**Twelve days before Christmas**

 

Eliot was in the kitchen working on his gift for Parker. Perfectly formed spheres of chocolate waited to be filled with chocolate liquor. 

"Those for Parker?" Hardison asked as he sat down by the counter, a stack of one hundred dollar bills and a book in front of him. 

"Yep," Eliot said as he began the painstakingly difficult task of filling the hollow balls without breaking them. "When I get them filled and sealed I plan on adding a cap of chocolate to make it look like an ornament. Then I'll dust them with silver and gold luster." He nodded towards the stack of money. "You gonna give her money again? I know she likes it but it's not very original."

"I got this book." He held it up and showed Eliot the title.

"Origami With Money?"

"Yeah. I'm going to make her a bunch of different things out of this stack I have here." 

Eliot glanced down at the chocolate ornaments he was working on. "It's not enough."

"You think I need more bills?" Hardison asked.

"It's... Parker... I think we need to get more for her. I don't understand it but she makes such a big deal out of Christmas. Why do you think it means so much to her?"

"She was a foster kid. That isn't always the best kind of life. Parker, I don't think she got to have any merry Christmases."

"Exactly why we need to give her something really special. Something more than my cooking or your ... well money. Something she would love."

"She loves us," Alec pointed out.

"She has us. It has to be something different. Think on it we only have a few days yet."

While each man worked on the gift they had already planned they tossed ideas back and forth discussing then discarding each one that came up

 

**Three days before Christmas.**

 

"I'm telling you it's the perfect gift. She'll love it," Eliot argued.

"She might but I won't. Nuh un. No way." Hardison shook his head while he handed the brochure back to Eliot.

"Damnit. Hardison. Man up. Do this for the woman you love," Eliot growled.

"You trying to kill me?"

"I'll be there too."

"What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing's gonna go wrong, man. C'mon. Let's do it." Eliot paused. "For Parker."


	2. Chapter 2

**Christmas morning**

 

It was just a bit after six when Parker came bouncing downstairs. "Wake up everyone!" she called.

"I'm awake, darlin'," Eliot said as he came out of his first floor bedroom.

Parker came over and gave Eliot a hard kiss on the lips. "Merry Christmas, Sparky. Look! There're presents under the tree!" She ran over to the tree and picked up a box. "Let's open them! This one has your name on it."

"What do you say we wait for Alec?" Eliot asked. 

"Alec!" Parker yelled as she bounded up the stairs. 

Still blissfully asleep Hardison was jolted into the waking world when Parker jumped on the bed and rolled him onto his back. She straddled his hips, gripped him by the shoulders and shook him until he opened his eyes. "Merry Christmas! Wake up and come down. We have presents to open and Eliot's cocoa to drink!"

Alec groaned. "Give me another hour baby girl. I needs my sleep."

"No! Now!" Parker got off him and stood at the edge of the bed tugging on his arm. "Come on Alec, I need you to put the Christmas music videos on." When she saw that he was rising Parker skipped back down the stairs calling out, "Eliot, I need some..."

"Got you covered darlin'." Eliot met her at the bottom of the stairs with a cup of hot chocolate made from heavy cream and Belgium chocolate. The top was completely covered with a huge dollop of whipped cream, just the way she liked it.

She took a sip and scrunched up her nose. "It tastes different."

"I added a kiss of peppermint." 

Parker tilted her head to the side.

"For Christmas," Eliot clarified.

"Like a candy cane?" 

Eliot nodded. "Don't you like it?"

She took another sip. "I love all your kisses," she said as she stepped closer and kissed him again leaving some of the cream mustache that covered her upper lip on his face. "Thank you." Turning back to the stairway she yelled. "Alec come get some of Eliot's candy cane hot cocoa! It's good."

Hardison came down the stairs rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Still dressed in his Darth Vader sleep pants he said, "Why do ya'll insist at getting up at the butt crack of dawn. We genius types need our sleep."

"You geeks wouldn't need your sleep if you weren't up all night playing with your imaginary friends," Eliot said as he returned from the kitchen and handed Alec a cup of cocoa.

"They're not...." Alec started to protest then said, "You know what? Never mind. The intricacies of the tech world far surpass your punchy brain." 

"Punchy brain? You want to see what my punchy brain is telling me to do to you?" Eliot growled.

Parker stepped between them. "No fighting on Christmas. Let's open presents!"

"I was thinking we'd have breakfast first," Eliot said.

"No! I've waited long enough. I want to open presents." Parker strode back over to the tree and pulled out the box she had picked up earlier. She thrust it at Eliot "Open it."

The card on the wrapped gift said it was from Parker. Inside the box lay a short double-edged watered-steel curved blade with a raised medial ridge. The curved gold hilt was decorated with inset diamonds, rubies and emeralds in floral designs and engraved with geometric motifs. The wooden sheath with blue velvet cover was decorated with embroidered metal-thread and sequinned floral motifs. The chape was similarly inlaid with diamonds, rubies and emeralds set kundan style in a floral pattern. Although it was pretty useless for anything Eliot might employ in his arsenal of weaponry it was well crafted and a sight to behold. He examined it, turning the blade over in his hand, studying it from all angles. "Late 19th century." he pronounced. Looking up he added, "It's beautiful. Thank you Parker."

The smile on her face was almost as wide as the one she would get when given a gift. Reaching back under the tree she pulled out a present wrapped in green and gold and handed it to Hardison. When he opened it to see several computer games that had not been released yet he frowned. "Baby girl these are not out yet."

"Not in stores but they are ..." She shrugged. "Let's just say I knew where I could pick some up."

Eliot shook his head and wondered if she had 'picked up' the dagger she had given him. Knowing their girl he wouldn't doubt it.

Hardison gave Eliot a fly rod he knew the hitter had been looking at and then handed Parker her box. She squealed with delight when she saw the origami items he had fashioned. "I love them!" 

Turning then to Eliot she worried her lower lip, waiting to see what he had come up with. He made her wait and handed Hardison his gift first. 

The hacker accepted the small box that was carefully wrapped in silver paper with green frogs wearing Santa hats. He shot a quizzical look Eliot's way then unwrapped and opened the box. Inside on a bed of velvet lay a gold ring with with odd looking lettering circling both the inside and the outside of the band. Hardison looked at the gold band then at Eliot then back to the gold band. "Is this..."

"I ain't proposing to you if that's what you were gonna ask," Eliot said.

Hardison laughed. "Didn't think so."

"What is it?" Parker asked.

"One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them," Eliot said.

Confused she asked, "Alec's going to rule us?" 

At the same time Hardison said, "I didn't know you ...."

"Knew that? I _do_ read Hardison."

Parker frowned "I still don't understand."

"Lord of The Rings, momma. Eliot got me a copy of the ring from the movie."

"It ain't a copy."

"But how?"

"I know a guy and called in a favor."

"It's..." Alec swiped at his eyes, "Great. Thanks."

"I'm glad you like it." Eliot reached back under the tree and pulled out a box wrapped in red for Parker. 

Her eyes got wide when she opened her gift and saw the hand made chocolates. She immediately snatched one out and bit into it, putting her hand over her mouth when the chocolate liqueur shot out. "Mmmm. They're good," she declared around her mouthful of chocolate. When she attempted to grab a second one Eliot took the box away. 

"No more until after breakfast."

Parker pouted then got to her feet. "I have one more but it's for all of us." She ran into the closet she used for all her gear then returned lugging a package that was wrapped in blue paper with white snowflakes. It was two inches deep, forty-eight inches wide and thirty-six tall. She propped it up against the sofa then stepped back. "Open it."

"Which one of us?" Eliot asked.

"Both of you. Open it. Do it now," she insisted.

They ripped the paper off together to reveal a hand drawn picture of the three of them. Eliot was on the right, Hardison on the left and Parker in the middle with her arms flung over the shoulders of her men.

"Did you draw this baby girl?" Hardison asked.

She nodded.

"Parker, it's.... beautiful." Eliot's gaze searched the walls, calculating the best place to hang it. In his mind's eye he found the perfect place to show it off to its best advantage. A single nod of his head was followed up with, "Alright. What do we want for breakfast?"

"Christmas cookies!" Parker declared.

"Parker, you don't eat cookies for breakfast,"Eliot said.

"Why not?" 

"You just don't," Eliot growled.

"Waffles sound good," Hardison added.

"Chocolate waffles!"

Eliot laughed. It was Christmas and he would indulge her. "Chocolate waffles it is."

Along with chocolate waffles for Parker and Hardison and plain for him, Eliot grilled up sausage patties from the breakfast sausage he had mixed together the day before. His indulgence ended when Parker asked for chocolate syrup for her waffles. He always tried to get them to eat at least one healthy thing.

"The syrup would just cover all the chocolaty goodness of the waffles. Eat them this way, sweetheart." Eliot put chopped fresh strawberries on the top of her waffles and then dusted them with confectioners sugar. Although she scowled the look on her face when she actually tried them let Eliot know he was forgiven for keeping the chocolate syrup from her.

After breakfast it was time for the final gift, the one for Parker that Eliot had talked Hardison into going in with him. They cleaned up the kitchen then Eliot announced, "We have one more surprise gift for you, Parker." He loved watching the childlike light of wonder sparkle in her eyes.

She bit her lower lip and held out both her hands.

"This one doesn't work that way baby girl," Hardison said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"We're going someplace but it's going to be cold so put we all have to put on our Under Armour," Eliot said.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll know when we get there." Eliot turned to go to his room. "Go change."

Fifteen minutes later they were piling into Lucille. Eliot slipped behind the wheel and when Parker went to get into the front seat he said, "Gotta ride in the back." At her frown he added, "I know you don't like being blindfolded darlin' so Alec and I figured to keep the surprise going until the end he'd ride in the back with you while I drive." He didn't wait for her reaction before pulling the curtain closed that would separate the back of the van from the driver's section.

Parker was antsy for the forty-five minutes it took Eliot to drive to their destination. She kept telling him if he'd let her drive they would get where they were going faster. It didn't matter to her when Alec pointed out that she didn't know where their destination was. She simply said she'd get them there faster no matter where they were going. When she felt the slowing of the van as Eliot turned into the lot she whooped and declared they must be there. How she knew it was the end of the trip when it could have been Eliot truing a corner neither male could explain. Before Eliot could put the van in park she was trying to get out the door. 

"Not yet," Alec said as he tried to hold her back. 

"I want to see my gift." 

They made her wait until Eliot got out and came around to the sliding door. When she got out and saw where they had taken her, her eyes filled with child-like delight."Oh thank you! Are you going to wait here for me?" she asked.

"That sounds like..." Eliot's elbow to the ribs shut Hardison up.

"No. We're going up with you. Alec and I are going to do a free fall with you."

"Awesome! Let's go!"

Parker and Eliot started heading for the plane and the pilot waiting for them. When he saw Hardison hanging back Eliot turned around. "Damn it Hardison. C'mon!"

It took some doing and a lot of protesting by the hacker but they got Alec suited up with a parachute and into the jump plane. As they went up Eliot explained all the mechanics of the dive they would be taking. "Hardison, you'll go first. Do not pull that cord for your chute until I signal you." He leaned close and said, "If you ruin this for her I will break every finger on both your hands."

"That is just wrong. It's Christmas. Ya'll gonna kill me on Christmas!" Hardison protested.

"Listen. You ain't gonna get hurt. Trust me. Haven't I always been there for you?"

Alec looked at Eliot with soulful brown eyes and nodded. Even so, when it came time for Alec to jump Eliot and Parker had to push him out of the plane. "I'm gonna diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie! he screamed as he hurtled through the sky.

Eliot waited until Hardison was clear and jumped listening for the cry of exhilaration he knew would soon follow when Parker exited the plane. As they fell through the sky Eliot aimed himself for Hardison and when they were close enough he grabbed the hacker's hands. They stayed that way until Parker caught up and then they opened and let her join in. "Merry Christmas! Parker yelled and her men answered in kind just before she broke away. Eliot nodded to Hardison then reached over and pulled the cord that would open his chute. He waited until he was out of Alec's path before he pulled his own allowing him to float safely back to earth. He was gathering up his chute when Parker landed. She whooped and called out, "Let's do it again." 

Eliot looked over at Hardison. The hacker was just getting to his feet. He shook his head and even though they were a ways apart Eliot could see the whites of his eyes, the same as they always got when Alec was scared. "Once is enough, Parker. We have to head back home so I can start working on Christmas dinner."

They gathered their chutes and turned them in. As they were walking to the van Parker got between them and flung an arm over each man's shoulders. "Best. Christmas. Ever."

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked my Christmas story A Gift For Parker, Thank you for reading.


End file.
